Skating Star Hamill Loses Claim on Stolen Jewelry

Professional ice skating star Dorothy Hamill and her former husband, actor-tennis player Dean Paul Martin, had no luck Tuesday in trying to convince a federal appeals court that Lloyds of London should pay off for the theft of $365,000 worth of insured jewelry from a San Francisco hotel in 1982.

Three justices of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a decision announced in San Francisco, upheld a decision by a federal judge in Los Angeles, who ruled that the insurance carrier could not be forced to pay since the couple did not keep the jewelry in the hotel’s safe, as stipulated in the insurance policy.

Before checking out of the Pacific Plaza Hotel on Dec. 23, 1982, Hamill, 28, placed a locked jewelry case containing the valuables in a suitcase and hid the luggage under a bureau in her room. While she was out, a hotel maid allowed a stranger, who claimed he was staying in Hamill’s room, to enter. When Hamill returned, the suitcase was gone.

Hamill married Martin, son of singer Dean Martin, in 1982, but they were divorced last June 1, William Elliott, Hamill’s attorney, said.

Hamill won a gold medal in figure skating at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria.